Backup archive problem 9.0

[jamesmaynard]

I installed paragon drive backup 9.0 express about 3 months ago, I made a copy of my c drive to a backup file on a removable usb harddrive, I ran restore a couple of times and it worked no problems. I tried to run it today, it can't find the archive file to list it, and when I try to add it manually it still will not list the archive file. I will gladly accept links to previous posts about this if they exist, I just don't want to waste another hour 'trying to figure it out on my own'.

[Paragon_Tommy]

Make sure in the Archive Tab, that "Show All" is what you're on. Depending on the type of backup you have, complex or simple, you may see individual partitions or multiple partitions. If it was a single partition backup, change to "Show Partition" and click Add Archive and select the .PBF or .000 file, whichever is available.

[jamesmaynard]

I'm so glad there's help on this forum. Thanks guys. When I select 'switch to file view' I can view and select the .arc file that I want to restore from but there's also 2 error files attached to it. The first one is 'Launcher.hta invalid archive file' and the second one is 'MediaId.bin invalid archive file'. The date on the MediaId.bin error file is 8/28/09, the same day I installed and first successfully ran the software. The date on the Launcher.hta error file is 9/13/2007, which seems a bit odd. I ran 'check archive validity' on the .arc file (which contains the .pbf file among others) located on the usb drive and it was fine, I also ran windows chkdsk on my removable usb drive and it came out clean. When I try to restore the c drive of my Toshiba Satellite A-135-S4527 laptop to the image I have saved as the .arc file on the Simpletech usb drive using Paragon 9.0 Express it gets all the way up to rebooting then windows vista cuts in and says it can't boot so it has to restore to it's own backup position to avert bluescreen. It then boots back to the same dysfunctional place that it was before I tried running Paragon to restore my 'fresh Vista install' image. Bearing in mind that this software worked just fine twice in the first week after I installed it and made the .arc backup image, what do I try next?

[Paragon_Tommy]

Jamesmaynard,

You said that it restored all the way to Vista rebooting, which means the image was successfully restored, except you still couldn't boot into the OS, am I correct? Assuming you did complete the restore, but the problem is trying to boot the system backup for the first time, we can try a few remedies to make sure all the boot records are in place. If you have an original Windows Vista installation disk, you can try using the repair function to automatically search and repair. If you need the CD, it's available for download:

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/window...disc-download/

You also mentioned that you get a BSOD (blue screen) and automatically restarting the computer. During the splash loading screen, hit F8, in the DOS text screen, select the option to disable automatic restart and then boot Windows normally. Your screen should stop at the BSOD and make note of the error, for example 7B.

Furthermore, the original image you are restoring, is it from this very machine you've restored to, or from another machine because if the hardware is incompatible, 7B BSOD are very common.

Regards
Tommy

[jamesmaynard]

This is the same machine that I made the image from, none of the hardware has been changed; I read some of the other problems people have saving images from one drive and then trying to rewrite the images to different sized drives. Thankfully none of those problems here. After I select the arc_ file from the usb drive and specify for it to be written to the c: drive of the laptop and then select the bubble to apply the changes physically it only takes a couple of minutes before it prompts me to restart. What I remember from before is that it then takes about 15 minutes for Paragon to wipe the disk and rewrite it according to the saved image. If I follow the f8--->normal-windows-boot option, will it then follow that Paragon wipes the drive and rewrites it as desired instead of leaving me stuck at the BSOD? I will try running the Toshiba recovery disc first to troubleshoot any boot loader problems, it wouldn't surprise me if the boot sequence has been messed with as I suspect my computer has been pretty badly hacked (explorer keeps crashing and restarting). I haven't searched your forums for it yet, but if you have a handy reference for me to read about tuning my browser and firewall settings I'd be glad to read it.

[jamesmaynard]

Ok, I burned the ISO image of the Vista repair disc to cd and ran the startup repair and the memory test, all checked fine. Specifically, after Paragon prompts me to restart the computer to gain full access to the c drive partitions, the boot sequence fails and gives me 2 options (1) run startup repair (2) boot normally. I've tried both options, startup repair takes me to a restore point of my current install (the buggy one) and boot normally just keeps failing and bringing me back to the startup repair option. One thing that stood out to me this time is that when the arc_ file is being written to the c drive before the prompt to restart, (1) the progress bar never starts, (2) the operations window never shows anything, (3) the time elapsed and the time till finish meters both stay at 0. It looks like nothing is happening. Still no go

[Paragon_Tommy]

Hello jamesmaynard,

If you are overwriting the existing OS partition, I would recommend running the restore operations from outside of Windows with a recovery disk. I also noticed you're using the older product of Drive Backup 9.0

From another computer, download Backup & Recovery 10 Free edition, create the recovery media, and use that to restore.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home...ess/index.html